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Today, we’re having a day in the library for prospective and new Penn students who will (hopefully) join our community in the fall. As part of the library presentations, I’ve been asked to talk about Japanese mobile apps, especially for language learning.

While I don’t consider this a necessarily DH thing, some people do, and it’s a way that I integrate technology into my job – through workshops and research guides on various digital resources. (More on that later.)

I did this workshop for librarians at the National Coordinating Council on Japanese Library Resources (NCC)’s workshop before the Council on East Asian Libraries conference a few weeks ago in March 2014. My focus was perhaps too basic for a savvy crowd that uses foreign languages frequently in their work: I covered the procedure for setting up international keyboards on Android and iOS devices, dictionaries, news apps, language learning assistance, and Aozora bunko readers. However, I did manage to impart some lesser known information: how to set up Japanese and other language dictionaries that are built into iOS devices for free. I got some thanks on that one. Also noted was the Aozora 2 Kindle PDF-maker.

Today, I’ll focus more on language learning and the basics of setting up international keyboards. I’ve been surprised at the number of people who don’t know how to do this, but not everyone uses foreign languages on their devices regularly, and on top of that, not everyone loves to poke around deep in the settings of their computer or device. And keyboard switching on Android can be especially tricky, with apps like Simeji. So perhaps covering the basics is a good idea after all.

I don’t have a huge amount of contact with undergrads compared to the reference librarians here, and my workshops tend to be focused on graduate students and faculty with Japanese language skills. So I look forward to working with a new community of pre-undergrads and seeing what their needs and desires are from the library.